Many insurance companies are considering offering, or do offer, discounts or variable pricing for automobile insurance based on data collected from vehicle telematics. Safety in the workplace includes perils beyond driving, including environmental conditions, physical stress and strain and dangerous equipment. Sensors on the marketplace and in development can identify dangerous scenarios, including environmental conditions, worker behaviors, use or lack of use of proper safety equipment, and interactions with dangerous machines, substances or areas.
Workers' compensation insurance provides compensation for workers that are injured on the job. This compensation may include medical expenses, death benefits and payments in lieu of lost wages. Workers' compensation insurance is state-mandated for most employees and is generally provided by private insurance companies, though some states operate a state fund.
Rates for workers' compensation insurance are set by state and are based on industry and job classification. Workers' compensation rating starts with a base rate, derived for each of some 600 classifications. This base rate is not modified for the smallest businesses, but for others, it is. These modifications include a mandatory application of an experience rating credit or debit, depending on a business's claims history compared to the average in that business class. Also, discretionary pricing modifications can be applied by the carrier depending on its underwriting evaluation of the account. Many large accounts share in the funding of their claims via large deductibles, policyholder dividends and retrospectively rated programs. These kinds of programs are generally referred to as “risk share” plans. For those businesses that are subject to experience rating or a “risk share” plan, their net cost of workers' compensation insurance is decreased to the extent they can either prevent, or mitigate the value of, claims.
Most insurance carriers that sell workers' compensation insurance provide professional services that help businesses prevent or mitigate the values of claims, primarily by reviewing the business's exposures and current controls, and by assessing the causes of prior claims and subsequently recommending and implementing solutions. Again, to the extent that these solutions reduce the number and dollar amount of claims, overall, the premium paid by the business will also be reduced. Loss control services are generally available to all businesses, but are most cost-effective for larger businesses.
Typically, loss control services are part of the basic product sold by an insurance carrier. However, loss control services may be made more effective and efficient by appropriately utilizing technology. In particular, sensor technologies that allow insured businesses to quickly identify unsafe situations, thereby providing the businesses with opportunity to correct them, and technologies that give insurance carriers automatic feedback and information on the safety performance of their policyholders, may beneficially contribute to a streamlined workers' compensation insurance evaluation system and advantageously decrease the risk of accidents in the workplace. In addition to streamlining workers' compensation insurance evaluation systems, sensor technologies may assist in improving risk evaluation and loss control for other types of insurance, such as group, short or long-term disability insurance, professional or general liability insurance, and/or medical malpractice insurance. These sensor technologies may also be used to monitor and facilitate other aspects of insured entities, such as general employee health, post-injury return-to-work programs for injured employees, the activity levels of patients in a healthcare facility.